Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty (retitled Dune II: Battle for Arrakis in Europe and for the Mega Drive/Genesis port) is a Dune video game developed by Westwood Studios and released by Virgin Interactive in Jan 1, 1992. It is based upon David Lynch's 1984 movie Dune, an adaptation of Frank Herbert's science fiction novel of the same name. While not necessarily the first real-time strategy (RTS) game (elements of which previously appeared in Stonkers, The Ancient Art of War, Command HQ, and particularly Herzog Zwei), Dune II established the format that would be followed for years to come. As such, Dune II was the archetypical 'real-time strategy' game. Striking a balance between complexity and innovation, it was a huge success and laid the foundation for the coming Command & Conquer, Warcraft, Age of Empires and StarCraft series, and many other RTS games.
Emperor Frederick IV of House Corrino is desperate for the harvesting of the valuable drug melange (also known as 'the spice'), found on only the planet Arrakis, to pay off all of his debt incurred on internecine wars with family members. To achieve this, he now offers the sole governorship of Arrakis to the House (Atreides, Harkonnen, and Ordos) which delivers the most spice for him. War begins as deputations from all three Houses arrive on Arrakis. The player is a military commander from a House of his choice. In the first few missions the objectives are to establish successfully a base on an unoccupied territory of Arrakis, to harvest spice, and to defeat intruders. Later, when the three Houses divide Arrakis among them, the player has to assault and capture enemy territories. When the player dominates Arrakis on the world map, the two other enemy factions ally against their common enemy. The ultimate final showdown is the battle between the player's House against three enemy sides, among them Frederick's forces the Sardaukar (an unplayable elite force whose heavy infantry are particularly powerful). The final cutscene is different for each House, in consonance with their very disparate world views.